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Basing Morality on Religion as Applied to Suicide
Introduction
Most religions condemn suicide. Many people think that morality is founded on religion. In fact, religious people assume that secular people are less moral, since without religion, there seems to be no reason to hold any moral position.
Religious people believe that suicide is wrong since they are told so by their religion. This belief is strengthened by their loyalty to and confidence in the religion, its leaders and its scriptures.
However, loyalty, confidence in the religion, and that the religion states that suicide is immoral, are not enough to explain that suicide is immoral. The problem is that religions are maintained by human institutions. How can a human institution decide what is right or wrong? And if a religion can make such decisions, why cannot other human institutions do the same?
In fact, human institutions do not have the power to decide what is right or wrong. For example, if the government decided that chewing gum is immoral, that would not really make chewing gum immoral. Of course, if there were some punishment associated with chewing gum then that would be a good reason not to chew gum, but this reason would not be a moral reason, but rather a practical reason: of avoiding punishment under the rule of that specific government. Of course, governments do have laws, some of which reflect upon what the government considers moral or immoral, however, these laws were not decided upon arbitrarily, rather, there were (hopefully) good reasons to pass the laws. The legislators reflected upon the laws and the morality associated with them and came to know, at least approximately, what is wrong and what is right. Legislation is derived by knowledge and reason, not by arbitrary decision.
Religions also have a reason for making something wrong or right, and that reason is the word of God (no other reason would be a religious reason).
Assumptions
For the sake of simplicity, let us assume that God exists, that God cares about what humans ought to do, and that the religious institutions know what God wants us to do. These assumptions are problematic, and many people would disagree with them. For example, the Bible contains no indication that suicide is immoral, yet current Christianity opposes suicide. The problem is that without using these assumptions as a starting point, the discussion about whether morality (and the morality of suicide in particular) can be based upon religion ends immediately without resolution.
So the rest of this essay should not be viewed as if we agree with these assumptions, but rather, that even under these assumptions, it is still problematic to justify the immorality of suicide, based on religion.
Divine Command Theory
To continue, two additional claims are needed which together form what is sometimes called the Divine Command Theory of morality:
- God created morality.
- You should obey morality because God told you to do so.
The first claim requires some explanation. It provides an answer to one of two possibilities: either God has a reason for saying that suicide is immoral, or he does not.[2]
If God has a reason, then what makes suicide immoral is that reason, and not God saying that it is immoral. If God has a reason, then the argument about the morality of suicide is not based on religion since it does not rely on what God says but upon the reason given. If God has a reason then he did not create right and wrong, and the debate of whether suicide is immoral lies elsewhere.
It seems that if we want a theological reason for the immorality of suicide, God should have no reason, i.e., God is the creator of right and wrong. The problem with this is that God appears to be irrational and arbitrary.
God Created Morality
By saying that God created morality, it is meant that something is moral or not just because God says that it is so.
There are several problems with the claim that God created morality. First, if God created morality, then God could have made morality totally different. For example, God could have chosen to make suicide permissible. However, some moral commands have justifications which are not related to religion. For example, we would feel that murder is a sin regardless of whether a religion determines that murder is sinful. This does not fit with the notion that morality was created.
Furthermore, if God decides, what is right and what is wrong, why should you obey? Why should God's decision be binding on you? One could say that you should obey God since God knows better, but we are assuming that God created morality. Morality is not to be seen as something that God knows, but something that God decided upon. Suppose that your friend decided that you should stop chewing gum. He has no reasons, he just decided that this should be so. Why should you listen to your friend?
Finally, if God created morality then morality would be unintelligible. If God just decides what is right, it is impossible to understand why morality is right. One must accept morality as is. Justifying every moral rule because God says so becomes boring, pointless and does not help people who want to understand the difference between right and wrong.
You Should Obey
Addressing the second part of the Divine Command Theory, one argument that you should obey God is that God loves you and God created you. However, your parents love you and also created you, yet you are not obliged to obey them. Perhaps God's love is "superior" to the love of any other person, including your parents. This may be a good reason for gratitude, but it is not clear why this puts you under an obligation to obey God.
Perhaps you should obey God because God knows what is right. There is good reason to believe this is true. God knows what is right, perhaps because he created right and wrong, or simply because he is God. Indeed, if God knows what is right, it would be reasonable for you to obey God. However, accepting the argument creates a conflict with the first item of the divine command theory: that God created morality. It is difficult to see how God can both create morality and know it.
Finally, there is the argument that you should obey God since if you will not obey then God will punish you. However, as explained above, this argument not make suicide immoral. (see also [3]).
Conclusion
The problems of the theological arguments for the immorality of suicide stem from the much broader difficulties of establishing religion as the basis of morality.
Even if we accept questionable assumptions such as the existence of God, and that people know what God wants from us, it turns out that either God has no say in what is moral and what is not, or that God created morality and thus it is arbitrary and unintelligible.
REFERENCES
[1] Joseph Ellin, "Morality and the Meaning of Life", 1995, pp 78-85.
[2] Plato, "Euthyphro", http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/euthyfro.html
[3] ASH FAQ part 4/4: The Debate, "People who commit suicide go to hell", std.html
